Hello dear user, we will be honored to have you joining our community, so would you please register.We look forward to providing you with every thing you need to grow up your knowledge,Students in any section may use this forum to post questions about assignments, ask for advice or information, and to discuss general content related issues,We welcome all new members and hope to see you around a lot! To take full advantage of everything offered by our forum, please log in if you are already a member or join our community if you are not yet.....A special thanks, Admin.

In my craft or sullen artExercised in the still nightWhen only the moon ragesAnd the lovers lie abedWith all their griefs in their arms,I labour by singing lightNot for ambition or breadOr the strut and trade of charmsOn the ivory stagesBut for the common wagesOf their most secret heart.

Not for the proud man apartFrom the raging moon I writeOn these spindrift pagesNot for the towering deadWith their nightingales and psalmsBut for the lovers, their armsRound the griefs of the ages,Who pay no praise or wagesNor heed my craft or art.

-- Dylan Thomas

Thomas is answering the question: "Why do you write poetry?"

STANZA 1:Why does he stay up late at night (when others are asleep in their beds) laboring at his poems?

He starts by telling you what his reasons are NOT:-- not for ambition (reputation)-- not for money (bread)-- not for fame (strut and trade) or maybe poontang

BUT rather for the "wages" he's paid by the sleeping lovers' hearts

(Okay, that idea of "wages" from "lovers' hearts" doesn't make sense at this point, though. It's not that YOU don't get it. It's that you're not really supposed to get it at this point in the poem. And -- as you'll see -- it turns out to be a stumper, something that at some level, doesn't make any sense. Anyway, the idea here is to hang on and hope hopes this "wages" idea makes sense by the end of the second stanza.)

STANZA 2:He doesn't write for -- the proud man, the intellectual who stands apart from the heart's troubles,-- he doesn't write to gain immortal fame as a poet (to join the dead),

BUT he writes for the lovers whose hearts are full of rage and grief -- who don't even READ his poems ...